


Purple Hair Ties

by evilly_laughing



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - School, Bucky Barnes Gets a Hug, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Carol is a Good Bro, Clint Barton Gets a Hug, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, First Meetings, M/M, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Is a Asshole, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21892990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilly_laughing/pseuds/evilly_laughing
Summary: Clint’s different this year.Bucky’s not saying he’s not allowed to be different but…Clint’s different towards him.Bucky gets it. He does. The missing arm and the murder glares drives most away. If they get closer, it’s usually the angry scarring or non-existent social skills that does the trick.But Clint got closer.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes & Clint Barton, James "Bucky" Barnes & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Comments: 5
Kudos: 113





	1. JBB

Clint, who came to the school the year Bucky came back, two years behind because of the Situation, which ultimately led to the Arm. Bucky was full of nerves then. Never talking to anyone but his old friend Stevie; and even he was now a grade older. Bucky only even met Clint because of Stevie. Stevie who said he would sit with Bucky at lunch that year, but apparently it wasn’t implied that they'd be alone. So Stevie did sit with Bucky. And he sat with fifteen million other friends too because damn, Stevie got as many friends as fights and sometimes the two went hand in hand in weird ways.

The Lunch Table was Stevie and Bucky during the first few minutes of the first day. The two sat right across from each other. Stevie had a really nice lunch Ms. Rogers made him, complete with a note that hadn’t changed since kindergarten. Bucky didn’t have a lunch because he hadn’t quite mastered eating one-handed and didn’t want to look like a fool. He played it off to Stevie, saying that Becca was staying after so he gave her a bigger meal. He was only going right home after school anyway.

Three minutes in to the period, Stevie called over Sam Wilson to the Lunch Table. 

And Sam Wilson stayed a week talking about his weird-ass science teacher. Then spent two more talking about the scary, hot girl in his Phys Ed class.

He called her over on the fourth week.

She ate at the Lunch Table from time to time and Bucky has no idea where she was the rest of the time.

Tony also ate at the Lunch Table sometimes and Bucky doesn’t know how that started. Stevie said he’s rich and popular and just makes the rounds at lunch sitting at different tables. Bucky thinks that he was just looking to find friends because rich and popular weren’t synonyms and Tony’s eyes were always lonely.

Tony ate at the Lunch Table more after Stevie corrected his grammar, which almost started a fight. Bucky knows though, Tony was baffled someone was paying attention enough.

Tony brought Bruce, Pepper, and Rhodey to the LT.

Bruce brought Thor to the LT.

Pepper brought Phil and Maria to the LT.

And somehow this kept going until the Lunch Table barely had enough seats for all of them.

Still, they left enough room for Bucky to sit in silence in the middle of the table and not eat. Thor gave him an apple once and Bucky almost ran. Carol offered her rainbow goldfish and Bucky did run. The bag ended up in his backpack, and when he got hungry after the nightmare that night, he ate them. The goldfish tasted like hugs. Bucky threw them up.

The LT people were friends who cared, maybe, but Bucky just couldn’t have that. 

Then, Natasha, the scary, hot girl, brought someone.

Natasha was always there for a reason it seemed. Last time it was because Tony did something embarrassing at some party and she wanted the others to watch video proof. When Sam went to show Stevie that video later, Stevie said he was there to watch it in person and Bucky wanted to cry because he didn’t know Stevie went to parties. Bucky had started to realize that being best friends wasn’t mutual; that going everywhere together and telling each other everything were past ideals that weren’t going to be brought back after the years away.

Bucky still doesn’t know what Tony did. No one showed him.

But, Natasha came with someone.

The guy was making himself seem smaller with his head tucked in to a purple sweatshirt that had tears at the sleeves. Yellow hair stuck out from his grey beanie that was pulled low to cover his ears. The boy didn’t even look up or speak. Natasha just said, “This is Clint. He’ll be sitting with us.” Sam offered a seat next to him, scooching down Rhodey. Natasha took it with a smile and said Clint could sit across from her, in the empty seat, right next to Bucky.

Clint had done what Natasha said without hesitation. It was Bucky’s left side. The one without an arm. Clint didn’t look at him, most try not to. Though, Clint also didn’t look at anyone else for the first two weeks. The two of them were the silent non-eaters at the LT.

Clint always communicated with Natasha though. It was as if they had the same brain frequency and could just stay stuff with their minds. When Natasha kicked Clint under the table a question fell from her to him and his head tilt answered in different ways. Sometimes Natasha didn’t like the answer and has a returning stare-down for it. 

On the third week of Clint, Natasha got angry he wasn’t eating. Bucky wasn’t either but he’d eat at home and he’d eat a lot. Clint just looked to be getting skinnier so Bucky figured it was right for Natasha to get upset. Either way, justified or not, the onslaught of food had started.

Clint ate slowly until Natasha was satisfied. He still didn’t talk.

Week five of Clint, Natasha let up the forced meals and Clint ate what he wanted, which turned out to be the weird cafeteria pizzas. After the meal, Clint would sit fumbling with his fingers like he was waiting forever for the half-hour lunch period to end. 

Bucky usually spent the time in his head, trying to remember the notes he couldn’t get down in class with his shaky handwriting. Out in the real world he was just glaring at a spot in the LT.

Since Clint pretty much inhaled his pizza, he always had lots of time left. At first the boy just knotted his fingers together. Later, he added some foot tapping, hesitantly starting and then getting progressively faster and louder. Next, came the paperclip that he would always deform. Or the pen spring he tried to bounce in his palm before losing it. And drumming a pencil on the table side was always interesting when Clint did it. 

Nothing that Clint did took up table room. The boy was still trying to make himself small on the seat and after eating, he’d clean up any evidence that he was even there. 

Bucky didn’t know why he was noticing all this; just that these became the Things Clint Did. Like when Clint pulled on the edges of his hat to bring it down lower when people were being loud. Like when Clint wore purple and seemed happier that he was. Like when Clint muttered under his breath “aw” whenever something inconvenient happened. Like when Natasha kicked Clint everytime he was too busy with his thoughts to hear the bell. Looking back, that probably wasn’t why he missed the bell because, despite the fidgeting, Clint is always in the moment.

Nobody talked to Clint just like nobody talked to Bucky and Bucky figures Steve and Natasha gave the others a talk about the two of them. Bucky isn’t sure how it went because he wasn’t there. For some reason though, week eight of Clint, Bucky really wanted to talk to him. Was there some kind of rule? Did Clint really not like it? Would Clint get upset or have general Bad Feelings if Bucky said hey? It didn’t matter, in the end, Bucky couldn’t say hey. The words always got stuck in his mouth.

He had stopped talking to Steve and no one noticed.

Bucky had a dream he was getting sucked away by a black hole but he had a rope tied around him. On a dock stood his little sisters trying to pull him in. Yelling out to him. They weren’t strong enough on their own. Behind them was a blob of purple, anchoring the rope down so it wouldn’t slip their grasps. His sisters kept trying to pull. The black hole was scary.

It was week ten of Clint when Natasha said she had to go somewhere and she’d be back some time. It was the middle of a Monday. She looked at Bucky and said, “Help him get to class. He keeps forgetting where room 439 is and he has that next.”

She left and for a second everyone looked at Bucky, as if he would combust if he was directly talked too. They stopped looking after a while though, because even Rhodey’s stories are more entertaining than Bucky.

Clint pulled Bucky’s shirt and quietly spoke with a type of articulation Bucky couldn’t put his finger on, “You don’t have to. I can get to class.”

Bucky wanted to say, “I have class in the area,” or “do you want me to disobey Natasha?” Bucky used to be smooth. He used to be able to say that. Clint would have chuckled and they might’ve been friends.

Instead, Bucky shook his head violently and was too forceful when responding with, “No! I can-I’ll do it.”

Clint nodded in almost-understanding and it was good. 

Walking him to class happened everyday that week because Natasha wasn’t specific in her part about coming back.

It was great.

Clint would finish lunch and start fidgeting. Then, when the bell rang, they’d stand up and head to his class, silently. Clint always tripped going up the stairs and had near misses with opening doors. He seemed to find his way around the building okay, but Bucky figured Natasha was being a bit protective. Especially when Clint never seemed totally aware, even if he always is, out in public.

The plus after, was that Clint was aware of Bucky. Bucky loved the moments Clint looked at him because never once did Clint eye his left side weirdly or have pity in his eyes. Oh, and his eyes were blue. The bluest of the blues that looked like sunny days and nursery walls. 

Natasha came back week eleven of Clint and invited Bucky to join them in their walks. Bucky declined. Clint seemed sad and Bucky felt worse. He missed school Thursday and Friday because he was sick.

Week twelve of Clint, Bucky was back but Clint looked bad. Bucky got to lunch late because he was talking to the teachers about missing work and when he got there, Clint was in his seat pulling on his sticking-out pieces of hair with one hand and tapping on the table with the other. 

Everyone else was fine. They were talking and shoving each other whilst Clint was having a crisis.

Bucky went into autopilot that Monday. 

He approached Clint slowly from the boy’s side. He placed his hand on the tapping finger, making Clint look up at him. Then, Bucky sat down next to Clint and slowly asked, “Are you alright, doll?”

Steve whipped his head around so fast it made Sam fall into Natasha but Natasha was too fixated on Clint to be bothered. Bucky didn’t care what went on across the table. He was also looking at Clint, waiting for some kind of sign that the purple-clad student would be okay.

Clint was maintaining eye contact with Bucky when he responded, “Where were you?”

Bucky figured he would stress later about the how and why and just let the words fall out of his mouth.

“I just got a stomach bug, okay? Were you worried about me?”

Clint nodded, his hands pushing together in knots under the table. Bucky still had hold of his arm though, so instead of replying, Bucky just gave a light squeeze.

Clint seemed to appreciate that more because his cracked lips turned up in a minute smile.

The next day Clint had two slices of pizza and offered his apple juice to Bucky. Bucky drank it with a ‘thank you’ tilt of the head. Bucky hates the school apple juice.

That week, Bucky also avoided Steve like the plague, which only occurred because Steve started chasing him around. Sam noticed the situation and wished him luck. Sam is kind of okay.

Steve caught up to Bucky walking home on Thursday. The former started the conversation as if they’d been talking normally for the last year. 

“So you’ve been hanging out with Chris a lot lately?”

Bucky wasn’t going to ever respond to that but Steve’s stubborn-ass didn’t take a hint.

“That’s good. I keep telling you, you need to hang out with people more.”

Silence. Go away, Steve.

“And what'd ya know, you’re starting to sound like… well, you. I’m so proud, Buck.”

And God, did Bucky want to snap. To say, “I am me. I have been. I’m always. And I am right in front of you but you just. won’t. see. Me!”

He didn’t .

Steve went on, “And you should be proud too. Gosh, you’re so brave.”

It isn’t like he had much of a choice.

Bucky was approaching the door of his house and took his time to face Steve. Steve was looking everywhere else. Especially near where his arm would be.

“Anyway, Buck. I hoped you’d respond but it’s been good talking with you. Good-”

“His name is Clint. Bye,” Bucky interrupted before going in the house and shutting to door on Steve.

Friday and into week thirteen of Clint, Steve shot Bucky Looks across the table. 

Clint took out a sticky note one day and wrote: y does Steve do that??

He passed it too Bucky and Bucky replied underneath: b/c hes dumb

Bucky added a little doodle of Steve looking derpy and passed it on. Clint snorted.

Bucky just about died of cuteness overload when Clint’s cheeks reddened after. Sadly, the noise drew Steve’s attention.

“So, Clint.” The stress on Clint’s name made Bucky’s glare turn on Steve, who continued like the guy he was interrogating wasn’t pulling down his beanie, a sure sign Clint was nervous. “Where ya from?”

Clint looked down to the table, missing Natasha smacking Steve, across Sam. Steve turned to Sam for back-up but Sam just said, “Hey, you’re the one being an ass to her friend.”

Steve huffed and stormed out. Natasha followed. Clint finally looked up, ready to answer, and was confused at the missing LT members. He poked Bucky and shot him a look that was just his asking for clarification. Bucky circled his previous drawing of Steve and captioned it: sometimes he sucks. natasha makes sure he knows that

Bucky didn’t feel very verbal that day. His nightmare left him screaming the night before and his left shoulder kept itching, making him generally uncomfortable. Clint’s responding thumbs up doodle made his day a bit better though.

The next day, Steve sat quietly, still glaring at Bucky and now, Clint as well. That is, until a girl Bucky didn’t even know came up and the two started talking about what to say against T’Challa in Debate Club. 

That sentence didn’t make sense to Bucky, who last remembered T’Challa as the kid on the playground who kept saying he was a cougar. Or maybe it was a jaguar? It was some jungle cat… maybe?

Bucky’s memory gaps were pointless and frustrating. But, he couldn’t be blamed for things he didn’t know because no one told him. Example, Steve joined a club. Further, Steve joined the Debate Club.

Bucky thought to himself that Stevie woulda been great at Debate Club as long as he stopped throwing punches when people were bigots. Stevie was a past idol, though. Bucky doesn’t know who Steve Rogers is.

Clint had cleaned up his pizza plate and was fidgeting. A lot. He had his foot going and his fingers were pulling at his hair and beanie. Bucky didn’t know what to do but he wanted to help.

Bucky couldn’t find his voice, it wasn’t a Good Day. It wasn’t a Bad Day but that didn’t matter in the moment. Bucky just wanted to run because he became so overwhelmed in how Clint was overwhelmed.

Natasha noticed, because of course she would have. 

She mumbled, “Idiots. Complete. Idiots,” under her breath as she searched through her red backpack to pull out a purple shoelace.

Kicking Clint to get his attention, she handed over the shoelace, which was old and frayed, but not dirty. It actually seemed pretty well-kept for such a beat up item. The stitches that were coming undone were organized and not in some big knot, which would be more realistic.

Clint took the shoelace and said something to Natasha in Russian. 

Bucky didn’t know Clint spoke Russian but Bucky didn’t know a lot about Clint. He wished he could learn more.

Clint spent the rest of the week pulling apart threads and braiding it back together. It seemed to soothe Clint and honestly, Bucky could just watch Clint’s hands work the entire lunch period without noting the passage of time. It was relaxing, although, if Bucky was asked to do the same, Bucky would never be able to see such tiny strands.

Steve apologized the next week to Bucky. Bucky didn’t accept it because it wasn’t to Clint so Steve said he’d stop hanging out with Bucky. Bucky never realized they were hanging out.

That week Bucky asked Clint via sticky note how he braids the string and in the next couple weeks, Clint had different purple strings to mess with. They sat facing each other and Clint would demonstrate what to do. Bucky never did anything. He only had one hand and he could barely take notes, much less make a whole friendship bracelet. And eventually, that’s what Clint did. 

He made purple friendship bracelets and gave one to Bucky but “only if you want it. You don’t have to take it just cause.” 

Bucky never took it off.

Then, Tony was asking for one. And Thor. And Bruce. And Sam. And Carol. And Phil. And Pepper. And Maria. And the list went on. Natasha didn’t ask for one but Bucky saw five on her ankle the day she wore a skirt because she had to look fancy for her presentation.

Steve didn’t ask but Clint made him one anyway because Clint is kind.

Steve never even picked it up so Bucky took it for his sister to wear. Afterall, Becca deserves something in return for hearing Bucky go on about Clint.

While Clint was making everyone’s bracelets, Bucky asked him questions on a piece of notebook paper. Dogs v. Cats. Zip-ups v. Pullovers. Star Wars v. Star Trek. Cars v. Trucks. Classic Rock v. Alternative.

When Bucky ran out of things to ask, they went to playing tic tac toe.

They tied, in the end.

By the time Clint was done with all the bracelets, the kid had finally integrated into the LT. He was more comfortable and took up space with his stuff on the table. Also, he leaned into Bucky’s space more and Bucky found that he liked that a lot. 

Bucky still was not becoming more comfortable with anyone else.

The Best Ever Day happened on a Bad Day.

Bucky had nightmares all night and that time, Clint was dying and it was all Bucky’s fault. Bucky felt stressed. He needed to reassure that Clint was okay. 

All during classes Bucky could not concentrate. His hair was a mess behind his head but he kept his red hood up anyway. His eyes were pink from crying all that morning and from his lack of sleep in the past nights. Bucky did not want to be there. He had to, though. To see Clint.

When lunchtime rolled around Bucky threw his stuff into his seat. He ripped open his notebook and wrote a message for Clint in big letters across the page. He debated the actual wording of his question until Clint walked up with his slice of pizza, already in hand and half eaten.

Can I sit close to you? Even touching? Or hugging?

Bucky probably looked half-crazed holding up the notebook in shaky hands.

Clint didn’t think so, though. He stopped and read the paper, then looked at Bucky. His silence is answer enough, Bucky thought, and told Clint, “It’s okay.”

As Bucky put away his notebook, Clint tapped his shoulder.

“All three.”

“Are you sure? It’s okay.”

“Yes.”

They moved so close together and Bucky was content. He had his right arm wrapped around Clint’s front and his body squished into his side. Clint seemed surprised by Bucky’s clinginess and Bucky almost pulled back.

Then, Clint started rubbing his side, reassuringly. Bucky didn’t care who was staring at them in the moment. Steve could’ve been giving them his Disappointed Look. Bucky doesn’t know. He closed his eyes and sighed into Clint’s old, purple hoodie.

Bucky was exhausted and he fell asleep right then. His last thought was that he was sorry Clint didn’t have anything to fiddle with.

He woke up to the bell and Clint already gone. A note was on the table in Clint’s writing though. It read: I hope that was okay. 

Bucky was confused. Of course it was, he was the one to bring it up.

Then, Bucky went to push his hair back and realized; Clint braided his hair.

Bucky loved it.

It was tied off with the purple shoelace and Bucky wanted to melt into the floor right there. He ended up missing the rest of his classes, choosing to go home to get some sleep so he’d be able to go to school tomorrow and give Clint back his string.

The next time Bucky sees Clint at the LT, he hands him a brand new collection of differently shaded purple hair ties that the corner store had. Of course, it was the far corner store because the close one only had black or pink or white and Bucky had to at least check if anybody sold purple before buying another color.

But that didn’t matter much, in the end, because the rest of the year, Clint happily braided Bucky’s hair as they sat in silence at the LT.


	2. JBB

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint’s different this year.
> 
> Bucky’s not saying he’s not allowed to be different but…
> 
> Clint’s different towards him.
> 
> Bucky gets it. He does. The missing arm and the murder glares drives most away. If they get closer, it’s usually the angry scarring or non-existent social skills that does the trick.
> 
> But Clint got closer.

Now, Clint’s different.

Over the summer, Steve had tried to hang out with Bucky a few times. Sometimes he brought Sam and Bucky thinks that he likes it better when Sam’s there. The guy acts like a buffer between Steve’s expectations and Bucky’s issues. Once, Steve brought Tony but Steve learned his lesson afterwards about bringing a highly energetic maniac into Bucky’s safe space.

Rebecca sure let Steve have it.

But Bucky at least is on speaking terms with Steve. It’s a shame Steve didn’t bring Clint and Natasha over, though. Bucky spent his whole break thinking about the beanie-wearing teen and how he would probably hate the summer but Bucky never asked him about his favorite season because Bucky is stupid.

He also didn’t ask for his number; a damn shame.

But the first day of school goes by and Bucky sees Clint in three of his classes! Without a beanie even and his yellow hair sticks out on top of his head in the most adorable way. Clint’s skin got tan over the summer, Bucky observed, and without the beanie he could see a hint of purple coming from behind Clint’s ears.

It is all so curious. What did the teen do over break? Does he like the beach or the pool? Does he know how to swim? Does he like too? Or is he ‘a stay in the A/C’ type person? Then, what does he do inside all day?

And Bucky plans to ask when he sat down next to Clint in Chem, but Clint ignores him. And Bucky starts whispering up to Clint in the seat in front in History, but he got shushed by the girl to his right. And Bucky even tapped Clint’s hand to get his attention and waved at him in Study Hall, but there was no returning wave.

So Bucky stands in the cafeteria, wondering where he should sit. He wants to cry. Does Bucky really have no friends?

Then, Natasha comes up on his left.

“We’re sitting in the fifth aisle. Corner seat left for you, if you want it.”

Bucky looks to where she is describing and finds a table that is full of people, but different then last year. It looks quieter. Bruce and Pepper and Clint are still there. But Tony and Steve and Thor have gone to a presumably more rowdy section.

Bucky is okay with that. He sits in the seat next to Clint and the aforementioned passes him a note: sry i didnt say hi. i wasnt sure if u still want to hang out

Bucky replies to Clint, who is looking down and figeting with… it looks like one of the purple hair ties.

“Of course I do.”

Clint writes on the paper: im also deaf. idk if u know. so could u maybe write that? or say it so i could lip read

Bucky grabs the paper to respond: i didnt know but OF COURSE to both! Clint ofc i wanna hang out. i missed u so much.

Clint smiles. “I did too.”

The hug is slow but fast. They want to hesitate and panic and seek comfort and provide it. They want to be here in the moment while making up for the moments missed. It’s desperate and so are they. They need to be understood and to be missed and to be cared for.

The following year of school, Bucky never comes to school with his hair in a braid but he always leaves with one. That’s because during lunch, Clint braids Bucky’s hair as Bucky listens to Bruce talk to the LT about the latest tea he’s tried, or watches Pepper study for all the honors classes she has. And after lunch, Bucky goes to math, which he takes with Steve, a grade higher, because he is still good a math, one or two arms does not change that for him. And Steve first ignored the braid but then started complimenting them in nice thorough ways like describing the style or how it fits into his outfit. Steve’s table is still not somewhere Bucky wants to be, though Steve understands it now. Bucky needs the mumblings of Happy Hogan about nothing at all and the presence of Clint at his back. Maybe Bucky could go back to doing stupid shit with Steve, but right now he’ll ditch the loud laughs at pranks for secret giggles when Clint ‘tries’ to quietly tell him a joke about the men in history.

Clint opens the book to Ben Franklin’s picture and sighs to Bucky.

“If only I could braid his hair.” 

“Clint, stop.”

“Imagine. I mean, that lightning is not doing him any good with keeping those strands together.”

“Clint, he’s like half bald.”

“It’s the other half that counts.”

Bucky looked down at the teen and smiled. If that is true, Bucky is getting only good marks.

His other half is amazing.


End file.
